Dealing With This Flighty, Half-crazed 5-year-old

Off the Beat

My 14-year-old daughter is pretty typical for her age, or so I'm told.

One day, Megan can be as sweet and loving as ever and the next day -- ahh, well, just fill in the blankety-blank blanks.

My 5-year-old is another case entirely. I mean, if he's not asleep or eating, he's bouncing off the walls. He doesn't howl at the moon, yet if there's a gust of wind, he acts as if he has seen a ghost and I have to peel him off the ceiling.

But then Joey is a black Labrador retriever and a little craziness is to be expected at his age -- or so I've been told.

In general, Joey is a great pet and you might even go so far as to say that as a buddy, he's inseparable -- as well as insufferable.

He is smart as a whip, too, but totally out of control.

When we go for a walk, if I go one way, he goes the other -- except for when he's running right into me.

God forbid, if there is anything -- animate or inanimate -- somewhere between sniff and sight, Joey becomes Inspector Clouseau and the casual walk-for-fresh-air abruptly ends.

Suffice to say, he definitely goes his own way, unless, of course, there's a tasty treat to dissuade him.

Generally, Joey gets along with his peers and doesn't pick fights, unless, of course, they come sniffing around the house without an invitation.

But at times I've wondered whether his behavior could be traced to some traumatic event when he was a pup or perhaps an unresolved issue with one of his real parents.

Out of desperation, I thought that surely there must be a veterinarian or specialist in the area who could help. A veterinary behaviorist, maybe. A doggy shrink. That's it!

I had heard of some practicing in California and figured there must be someone in the Hartford area. But after thumbing through the Yellow Pages, I came up empty.

A spokeswoman for the Connecticut Veterinary Medical Association in West Hartford said that only two of its members in the state specialize in canine behavior and they are way down in Fairfield County.

After giving it some thought, I decided that Joey and I probably would not survive a trip that far together.

The association then recommended trying an animal trainer. As luck would have it, I found a doggy school right near the office. So, off I trotted to inquire about Joey's behavior.

Anne M. Hubbard, a trainer at Tails-U-Win! Canine Center in Manchester, at first discussed some of the basic details about the school and then tried to tackle a major concern -- was Joey beyond hope?

Hubbard, who teaches advanced agility for show pets, emphasized that any dog can be trained, but only if the owner or handler is first trained properly.

``I teach people. I don't teach the animals,'' she said.

A primary belief in the value of positive reinforcement guides the lessons at Tails-U-Win and even the word ``no'' is banned.

``It's better to teach a dog what you want it to do, instead of what you don't want it to do,'' she said.

Hubbard then tried to address another big concern -- was Joey too old?

Hubbard quipped that no owner was too old to teach any dog a new trick!

``I spend more time teaching the owners how to handle their dogs, than I do teaching their own pets how to behave.''

How about that!

So, maybe I've been barking up the wrong tree all along.

Maybe the solution is for Joey and me to work on this behavior stuff together. Better yet, since he's actually MEGAN'S little pooch, maybe the three of us should take a dog-obedience class. Together.